AdamJD

Are you saying the spring that extends the grip and top button isn’t pushing the button up enough to seat firmly in the gear down block? If that’s the case, a new gear down block probably won’t fix that. Maybe @jetdriven knows how to disassemble the handle to inspect the spring. Also, when you say to have to do that to get it to engage the gear down light, is it otherwise firmly in the gear down block? If so, maybe the metal arm that engages the light is bent? It’s unlikely but I’d check it. However, if it’s barely engaging that arm, I’d be concerned about it the gear bar coming out of the block.

I have a 67 F with the electronic step. I put a switch in the cockpit. I love it. And yeah, it may be only a few knots. But this is one of the cool features of this vintage plane!! Its not that expensive to buy the electronic conversion and I have never had any problems with it.

I've done it. First year after owning the Mooney. Home airport was a bees nest as usual and the downwind was stretched to two miles. So I kept speed up on final and didn't bleed it in time. I was too fast and when the wheels touched, I popped back up off the runway and then the plane came back down slightly nose wheel first, which made the second bounce more pronounced. That's when I went around knowing the next bounce would have buried the nose. I was lucky and learned a lesson. Airspeed airspeed airspeed. And if you bounce a Mooney, it's not a 172. Go around. Not worth trying to save it.

You can get fine interior trim screws anywhere. Two months after I bought my F, I flew to Airventure. I went to the fly market with some sample screws and interior washers and bought a bunch dirt cheap. I then spent an evening in the north 40 sweating my baguettes off replacing every interior trim screw.

Did you sell this? Thanks.

See you there Parker!

I carry a multimeter with me. When I was having these issues, I used it with the engine running to check steady voltage to the power buss at the alternator circuit breaker. That’s how I figured out it wasn’t the alternator. From there it was a matter of following the connections after the alternator circuit breaker. If the alternator wasn’t steady at 14 or so at the breaker, I would have started looking at the field wire or voltage regulator.

Ditto for checking connections. I had the same issue. Would get low volt alert on JPI and then back up to 14 in a few mins or so. Sometimes longer. Replaced the voltage regulator and that did nothing. Wish we had tested output from the VR before we replaced it. Pretty easy to do. But the mechanic was convinced it was the VR. Anyway, it wasn't until I was hearing occasional popping in the headset that we determined a loose connection somewhere. Turned out to be a loose connection between the main buss and the avionics buss. After a few turns of the screw driver, the problem was solved.

Thanks for the continued ideas. I have a jpi 830 and a mechanical primary tachometer. They both agree and the JPI is pulling rpm from the mags. So I don’t think that’s the issue. But keep the ideas coming as we are stumped. Unfortunately I had to postpone todays flight so will have to wait a few days to do more troubleshooting.

The lowest I went was 2350 when I did the go-around test at altitude. I'll try to go to 2200 and back up to 2500+ this afternoon when I fly.

That was true on my most recent flight. But the flight before that I got it to surge to ~2650 at least once by pushing hard.

Same hours on the ATH, as the hub was done with the overhaul in 2012.

That's interesting. It doesn't take much movement to make a 150 RPM difference. We will definitely have to check that out. @jetdriven, what are your thoughts? We were wrenching on it a bit and it didn't seem like any of those 6 screws were loose - but we should check them. Might explain when sometimes you push hard, the RPMs go up to near 2700. Pushing hard may be rotating the whole thing a hair.

Don’t know how to rule that out, but I checked with my mechanic this afternoon and he doesn’t seem to think it’s the prop.

Appreciate all of the thoughts. Because I had all 4 cylinders rehoned I've been running straight Phillips mineral oil and running at high MP and lower altitudes, keeping power above 75%. I usually use Aeroshell W100 when not in breakin mode. I have about 12 hours since the cylinders were put back on. The problem appeared on the second flight, right after the first 2-hour break-in flight. However, for the break-in flight, I flew the first hour at 2650, so I didn't pull the prop back. For the second hour, I flew between 2450 and 2550, so it might still have had a problem and I didn't know it. I did try a simulated go around at altitude. Low MP, Low RPM, mixture full rich. When I firewalled everything, prop surged to 2600 and then back down to 2500. So the governor regulated back to 2500 instead of keeping it above 2600 (or the prop could be sticking as takair mentioned - not sure how to test that).